Monday, May 25, 2009

Big things.


May 24, first tooth.

May 25, sat up by himself for a good 30 seconds.

Wow. He's only four and a half months old, and he has a tooth. It's still mostly under the gum, but I can feel it, and if he opens his mouth wide enough you can see the little top of it sticking up. He had been drooling and slobbering and sticking EVERYTHING in his mouth for a few weeks now, and boom. Yesterday morning, I stuck my finger in his mouth, and there it was. My mom said I got my first tooth when I was five and a half months old, and I was under the impression that was early. He had been so crabby last week, totally skipping naps, crying way more than he usually does. One day I even gave him a tiny bit of baby tylenol, because he seemed so uncomfortable. Even his teething rings didn't seem to help. He would chew on them for a few minutes and then just continue to whine. But now that the tooth has shown up, he seems much happier.

He also is so smiley these days, it makes me laugh! He loves having his cheeks kissed loudly. His armpits and neck are extremely ticklish, and he discovered a new favorite thing:


I can't wait to put him in a swimming pool. Before I do that, I need to get him a sun hat to match his crab swim trunks and surf shirt (!), I need to get swimming diapers and baby sunblock.
He is also getting really good at sitting up. He was holding on to my fingers sitting up today and I let go and he didn't topple over. He actually sat up for about 30 seconds. The trouble is he leans forward to get to his feet. In the tub as you can see, he will sit and splash for as long as we let him.
We have also started eating solid foods. His doctor said two weeks of one serving of cereal, and then two weeks of two servings of cereal and then start introducing solids, starting with yellow and orange veggies and then green veggies. I kind of broke the rules. After a few days of plain cereal, he never seemed really interested. After consulting with mom-extraordinaire, Cristie Kimmins, I decided to start mixing veggies in with the cereal, and that, he adores. So far, he loves sweet potatoes and squash, and he isn't sure about carrots or green beans. I'm going to try peas next. I'm going to hold off on fruit for as long as possible, because I heard that once they start fruit, they don't want veggies anymore... He's such a good eater! I thought he was big for his age, but after his 4-month appointment, I guess he is only average size. His BFF Alexander was born 4 days before him, is long and skinny and outweighs Owen by a pound and a half!
Squishy face!


My little blondie.

And, I got a promotion. After two years of being a legal proofreader and document processor, I got promoted to a supervisor. It's not what I thought I would be doing - because it's actually midnights, but it's on the weekend. I work Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 8pm to 8am. I trained this past weekend and will start on my own next Friday. I am off Monday at 8am and don't have to be back to work until Friday at 8pm. Clint does his bedtime routine for three nights, and I take a couple naps throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday. My mom will watch him only on Mondays, from 8-5, Clint will take him and bring him back, so I can sleep.

I'm ecstatic. As soon as Clint gets back to work full time, things are going to be so fantastic.

Owen's future girlfriend, Lily Dilly, future daughter of Virginia, is being super stubborn and won't turn head down. If she doesn't flip around, Virginia's going to have a c-section on Tuesday, June 2. I'm thinking and praying for you guys! I can't wait to come see you and baby Lily, even if I have major anxiety about driving in Morgantown!!

And Clint and I have decided that Jon and Kate are totally getting divorced.

Ok, Clint is tired, and wants to go to bed, so it's lights out.

Goodnight!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day.

Technically, this is my second Mother's Day. I found out I was pregnant on May 9, 2008. I had been having faintly positive tests for a few days, but I had false positives before and I didn't want to be devastated again. I took about four different kinds of tests, including the fancy digital ones, on May 8, 2008, and had the pregnancy confirmed on May 9 by blood test. Two days before Mother's Day. Clint got me Benjamin Button on DVD, and of course I sobbed like a little girl again. I love the story. It's one of my new favorites.


Owen had his 4-month check-up on Thursday. He weighs 15lbs, 1oz. and is 25 inches long. He's awesome in every way, and the only thing I said no to on his development questions was that he hasn't rolled over yet. I think he is going to be the type of baby to roll from back to front first. He swings his legs all over the place, and scoots himself around that way.

We took his 4-month photo shoot today:
This is how it started, with him sitting up against the pillow next to the bear.

Then, he started bucking his legs, scooting down....

And scooting further down....

Apparently, he didn't want to sit up just then. Because this is how he ended up...

Still adorable.

Mother's day consisted of waking up late, going to later service at church with my husband and mom - and Owen of course - to see Owey's best friend Alexander get baptized. Then we came back to our apartment, made some pizza and watched Benjamin Button. Then I talked to one of my favorite mothers - Cristie Kimmins! I can't wait to bring Owen to come and visit your brood sometime in June.

Here's Owen with my mother:

And Owen with his mother.
Happy Mother's Day!!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

The Baptism, the Blackout and the big noises.

The baptism went pretty well! He was dressed in adorable little button down shirt and khaki pants, just like daddy. Those in attendance were us, of course, Clint's parents, my mom, Virginia, the godmommy, Chad, the godfather, and Clint's brother and sister. First of all, it was a beautiful day. I was so busy, that we only managed to get one picture, and it was accidentally in black and white, which is fine. We have a lot of memories!

During the baptism, all of our friends and family were standing around us, and sadly, as soon as the minister Margie took him so they could put the water on his head, he started crying! I think it was just because he was being held differently than usual, but he let out his typical, open mouth for five minutes building up a cry before he actually makes any noise! As soon as she handed him back to me though, he was fine, and I walked him up and down the aisle so everyone could see him. It was great.
He also got some wonderful little gifts, including some gift cards, several books, and Virginia gave him his first book of stories from the bible! What a good godmommy. Her baby is due in less than one month! I can't wait to go to her house and make some meals and do some laundry for her when Lily is like a week old.
After church, everyone came to our apartment and I made a huge breakfast for everyone. Bought flavored breads, english muffins, potatoes, breakfast meats, eggs with cheddar and dill, and strawberries. It was a success. Owen slept from 9:30 am to 1pm and missed the whole thing, but it was still wonderful!
At around 5pm that day, I was walking down the hall, and the light in the hallway went out, and I thought the bulb must have burnt out. Then I realized the electricity was out in the entire building. Our upstairs and downstairs neighbors were all calling each other. When I looked out the window, I saw the powerlines laying across the highway, and up the street a little, a tree was on the sidewalk and had pulled down the power lines. What a mess. AEP was immediately on the scene, doing their thing, but it was still 5am before we had power again. It was so hot in our apartment that day, it was about 85 degrees that day, and we didn't have any fans on. We had to go out to dinner and do a little shopping just to get out of the house. We got home around 8:30 and decided to light every candle in the house and do his bedtime routine. The entire time, from when we started his bedtime routine until I laid him down in his crib, he never made a sound. He looked at the candles, he was probably confused why there was no light or noise, and he remained completely silent. I was worried that he would cry in the middle of the night and I wouldn't hear him because the monitors didn't work (it occurs to me now that we could have put batteries in them...) but of course he slept until morning.
The day after the baptism, I took the day off and my mom and I spent the majority of the afternoon at my great Aunt Helen's. She wasn't able to come to the baptism and she can't manage the stairs at our apartment. She gets a real kick out of Owen.



Owen was really cute that day. We all sat outside for a little while, but it was so warm that we eventually went inside, and I laid him down on a blanket on the floor in her living room and he sucked his thumb and fell asleep. He slept for like two hours while we ate hot sausage sandwiches, looked through all my coupons and talked. It was a good day.

Speaking of coupons, I saved nearly $40 in coupons grocery shopping yesterday, thank you.

Clint says since we have been together, he has had more free meals out at restaurants than in his entire life. Something always happens to me at restaurants. One time I had a ladybug in my drink. I had a steak that ended up being mostly unedible because most of it was just fat. Today, we decided to go out to breakfast at Eat and Park after church, because we had to go to Target anyway. While there, Owen got a little fussy, so I figured he needed to eat. I asked the waitress to bring me some hot water so I could warm his bottle. She brought out a tupperware container full of steamy hot water, which was perfect to heat the bottle in. Unfortunately, as she was setting the container down, it fell out of her hands, and the scalding hot water spilled all over my breakfast and my legs. I was holding Owen, and I was so scared that it had gotten on him, but he was dry all over, Thank God. So, yet another free meal for the Amies...

Owen continues to grow rapidly. He's laughing more now, making little happy shrieks all the time while playing, he can sit supported extremely well, and I mean by holding two fingers or by just resting my hand on his back or belly and him leaning into it a little bit. He is also making noise like he just realized he could talk. He yells and babbles and coos, and he also fake coughs. I know he's faking, because he will make this cough sound and then continue making noise and stick his tongue out. Little faker. It's adorable.

Here's a little video I took on my phone.

He also has seemed very interested in food when Clint and I are eating. He stares at us and makes little noises. So, today, (he's almost 4 months old) we put him in his high chair and tried to feed him some very runny organic rice cereal. I also bought him some bananas for next week. He was pretty confused, but after a couple tries he started opening his mouth a little as I put the spoon to his mouth. He kind of just rolled the cereal around in his mouth and sort of let it drool out of his mouth. It's a start.

So, big things possibly in the works. More to come.